My Local Blog Launched

I am launching my local blog this week. My aim is to use the blog to report my local activities, keep people informed of local initiatives and campaigns and also to raise issues for local people to comment on. If anyone has an issue they would like me to address this blog will give them the ideal opportunity to bring it to my attention. I am really anxious that local people use the blog not just to air their views but also to propose actions that we can take forward together as a community.

I also have a national blog which is part of my campaign to become leader of the Labour party and which I use to comment on national and international issues. You can visit this website on http://www.johnmcdonnell.org.uk.

Locally the good news to report is that at long last work has started on the Hayes Station site. I have been campaigning for 15 years to have this derelict site regenerated and last week I visited the site to commence the construction works.

The redevelopment will include new housing both owner occupied and social housing, new shops, an arts complex, a restaurant overlooking the canal, gardens and a town square. The station will be renovated and prepared for the arrival of Crossrail.

My aim was that this regeneration initiative would kick off the redevelopment of other sites in the town centre. This appears to be happening with new proposals coming forward shortly for the redevelopment of the remainder of the former EMI site on Blyth Road.

After years of neglect and poor policy making our biggest challenge over the last two decades has been recreating Hayes Town centre as a viable and flourishing centre. With these developments we could be on the verge of realising our dream.

On the bad news side I was furious that the Council’s Planning Committee agreed the Council’s own planning application to demolish Judge Heath Lane Stadium, without even visiting the site in the usual manner. It was also revealed at the Planning Committee that the council had already started to dig up the stadium’s running track and that not all the income from the sale of the stadium will come back to Hayes. Instead it will be used in part to subsidise projects in the North of the borough.

In my view this is a deliberate policy by the Council of asset stripping Hayes and shifting resources to fund projects in the North of the borough. If you examine the health statistics for the borough there are higher levels of morbidity and shorter life expectancy in the South of the borough. It is in our area therefore that investment should take place in sports to encourage healthier lifestyles. Selling off Judge Heath Lane stadium also flies in the face of the policies of the Government and the London Mayor urging young people and people of all ages to increase participation in sports in the run up to the London Olympics.

I am urging local residents and local community organisations to write to Ken Livingstone, the Mayor for London, at City Hall to ask him to object to the council’s sell off plans and to allow us to have a public inquiry to determine the future of our stadium.

Why can’t the Council work with the local community rather than against us in this way? If the council co-operated with the community we could work together to bid for funds from the government and the lottery to refurbish our stadium for future generations and not lose this valuable site forever.

submitted by John on 04 Oct 2006 at 17:47